Nairobi — Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party's candidate Ken Okeyo Ng'ondi has been declared the fourth Speaker of the Nairobi City County Assembly, after garnering 68 votes out of 123 votes cast.

His competitor Hassan Robow Mohammed managed 55 votes.

Ng'ondi was elected in the second round after Clerk Edward Gichana reported that none of the candidates had attained the required threshold during the first round of voting.

During the first round Ng'ondi garnered 71 votes while his sole competitor Hassan Robow Mohamed managed 52 votes out of the 123 total votes cast.

The Speaker's election had started off with disruptions following a confrontation between Azimio and Kenya Kwanza MCAs who had differed on the voting procedure, but Sergeants intervened and restored normalcy.

"I hereby declare Ken Okeyo Ngondi as the elected Speaker of the Nairobi County Assembly," Nairobi Assembly Clerk Edward Gichana announced after a tense session.

Following his declaration as Speaker, Ng'ondi will be sworn in to take over from outgoing Speaker Benson Mutura.

Ngondi served as Deputy Speaker between 2013-2017 under the late Speaker Alex Magelo.

Prior to that, he had served as councilor for Kwale Ward during the defunct Nairobi City Council and Chairperson of the Public Health Committee.

Robow enjoyed the backing of Kenya Kwanza-allied MCAs after the disqualification of Benson Mutura from the contest over failure to submit a copy of the certificate of good conduct.

Clerk Gichana reported that seven out of nine candidates who had submitted their documents had been disqualified for failing to submit the required documents hence narrowing the contest to the two candidates.

Others who were locked out of the Speaker's election are Masaki Samuel, Brian Mutie, Austine Okello, Arthur Ngugi, Ahmed Subanea and Charles Muratha.